I hope you guys enjoy the alternate ending. It is M-Rated and will contain a lot of dark topics, so unless you are okay with all of that then I suggest not reading this. Also if you have not read the original story, then I suggest doing that as a lot of that story will be mentioned here. :)

Ch. 1

"Ratchet, he's being stubborn again." Springer pushed through the medical center doors, that was in the lower levels of the prison, covered in energon. He continued to grumble while Ratchet was repairing Wild rider's arm. "Again, Wild rider? What is this the eighth time this week?"

"Better than the state that deserter will be in when he gets released into the yard with the rest of us." The Decepticon giggled maniacally before the mech repairing him cuffed the back of his helm. "Ow!"

Ratchet finally attached the last wire and then welded the plating back on. "He isn't going to be placed in the yard with any of you lunatics. He's ready to be taken back to his cell, looks like I have to make a doctor's visit." The old medic placed the cuffs back on the Stunticon's wrists and then activated the energy cable from his ankles to his wrists. He waited for the triple changer to take the prisoner to his cell before grabbing a few items and went to the level that was just below the medical floor.

The lower level was where the Autobots had stored the Decepticon chain of command and the more dangerous of the faction. The medic stopped at a door that was at the end of the hall, the isolated room. He opened the door and saw the weak frame huddled in the far corner of the cell with energon all over the floor and walls. Ratchet sighed and took only a small step through the door before the mech that was in the corner flinched and huddled closer to his corner.

"You have to stay fueled; you know I will have you dragged to the medical center and force you." Ratchet grabbed a small cube of low grade energon, and placed it within reach of the mech. He looked up with blind optics and pawed at the floor until his digits wrapped around the cube. Ratchet took notice of the fresh claw marks on the armor plating and how shaky he was. The mech picked it up and Ratchet thought he was making a breakthrough, but his small victory was shot down when the mech threw it at him.

"Go away." His voice sounded scratchy and he laid down on the floor instead of the cot that was bolted to the wall and turned his back to the internally shouting medic.

"Jazz, I can help you if you would just let me." Ratchet noticed how poorly fitted the armor was to his protoform. He took another step forward and Jazz's engine was revving dangerously. The blind mech's warning was short lived before he gave a high pitched, static filled scream and grabbed for the thick band around his neck. He was stiffening and then flailing around on the floor for ten minutes straight.

Once the shock was done, Jazz was face down on the floor giving shallow intakes. "I don't want your help, because I don't deserve it. This is my punishment Ratchet, just let me suffer." He drew out the glyph that was branded on his shoulder, that Soundwave had branded him all those centuries ago.

"Jazz, why do you have to be so stubborn? You're just like Black light." Ratchet shook his helm with a grumble before leaving another cube in the room, and then leaving him once again. The medic didn't believe that Jazz was fully to blame, and he just needed a little help from the two mechs that knew Jazz best. ::Bluestreak, Blaster I need your help with a potential rehabilitation project.::

::Who is it?:: Bluestreak asked the mech, when he was answered with silence he knew quickly who it could be. ::Oh, no way Ratchet, Jazz's betrayal has broken my brother. You know how many crashes he's had whenever something triggers it. I tried helping Jazz, he's burned this bridge.::

::Awww…. Ah don't know Doc. Ah tried tah get him tah drop Soundwave.:: Blaster finally said hesitantly.

Ratchet went to his office before putting the comm on video. He sat in front of his terminal with the two mechs staring back at him. Bluestreak had his arms crossed with a glare, and Blaster looked uneasy. "I know you both feel betrayed by Jazz, but I know we could help him with the three of us. He had obviously had some sort of breakthrough; Jazz didn't kill Optimus and surrendered."

The two mechs looked away with frowns. Blaster snapped first and nodded, "aight Ah'm game. What can Ah do? Ya know he isn't gonna want tah talk tah anyone, let alone meh. Ah remind him too much of Soundwave."

"Ratchet, you know that sometimes mechs just don't want help. And you expect me, the brother of Jazz's ex-lover, to be his therapist?" Bluestreak leaned forward on his desk with his arms under him. He gave a heavy sigh and flicked his wings. "I don't know if anything will come of it, but it would be good for them to have some closure. After a few sessions."

"Thank you both, I know it is asking a lot, but I know Jazz can bounce back from this. We'll have a few interrogations, and you don't have to say anything Blaster just tell Magnus when he lies or tells the truth. I'll talk to Optimus about this, I know he doesn't hate Jazz." Ratchet said while the other two nodded. He switched off the terminal and leaned back with a heavy sigh. "I hope to Primus that Jazz is willing to cooperate with me."

Jazz quickly rolled onto all fours and started dry purging. It had become almost a ritual at this point whenever he had a nightmare. Once he was no longer dry heaving, Jazz rolled onto his back and stared up at the darkness. He could feel it, the teasing pull of the Host bond with Soundwave, and Jazz knew it was only further keeping his sick hold of him. You're all I have now. You were right, you told me he was going to leave me once he knew. Why didn't I just listen?

The Polyhexian couldn't hear the Host Carrier, but he could feel him, and it was the only comfort he could get until his spark finally gave out. Jazz heard his cell door open and could feel the warmth of the artificial light on his frame. "Go away. I am not touching the energon, I don't know any Decepticon secrets, and I don't want to interface." He went through the list of things this Bot could possibly want from him.

"You really are in bad shape." Jazz's optics widened when he recognized Bluestreak's voice, but he didn't move at all. "I actually came to escort you to the interrogation room, but I can tell that you wouldn't be able to make it really far." Bluestreak leaned against the doorframe, analyzing the mech in front of him. Marks all over his frame, servos covered in energon, and energon all over the room. His frame is ill fitted, but there are empty cubes scattered around the cell. Self-harm and self-starvation. In worse condition than during the war.

"Quit analyzing me. I know when I'm being stared at." Jazz grumbled and rose a servo above his face and gave a heavy sigh when the Praxian didn't respond to him. "Bluestreak, just leave me alone. Nothing I say will be believed, make up for what I did, or redeem me."

"Well it's not up for me to decide Jazz, and you really betrayed my trust because of what you did to Prowl. It actually was our cranky neighborhood medic that wanted to do this, and Optimus wanted to give you a chance." Bluestreak noticed the sudden flip of personality from Jazz the second he mentioned his brother. Jazz grabbed a nearby empty energon cube and threw it at Bluestreak in the face.

His engines roared, and he pushed himself upright. "Leave me alone!" Jazz's restraint collar started electrocuting him. He grabbed at his neck as he flailed around. The Decepticons that were in the other cells could hear the lone ex-Autobot scream, and they all were getting excited. Once the shocking was finished, Jazz was on his side panting heavily. "Just tell Prime that I am not interested in whatever him and Ratchet wanted. Not unless it involves my spark extinguishing."

Jazz seems to have given up and doesn't want help of any kind. Bluestreak sighed as he looked at the mech with a heavy frown. This therapy treatment is going to take vorns to complete, but maybe… if I can get Prowl to possibly help me out, Jazz could get back to his confident self, faster. But, with his reaction to Prowl's name that would have to wait until his rage is dealt with. "Well Ratchet wants you fueled, in the interrogation room, a session with me, and then a trial in a deci-vorn. That's the rules before a trial."

"Wouldn't this be your session? I've been interrogated plenty by the prison guards, and you can see what happens when someone brings me energon." Jazz waved his servo in the air. He heard two more walk toward his cell, and he gave a tired, agitated chuckle. "Are we having a party?"

"Come on Jazz, enough of being the difficult mech." Two pairs of servos grabbed Jazz's arms before he could fight back, though he couldn't put up much resistance. One of the mechs flipped him roughly on his front. The other mech moved his servo to the back of his helm and put him in a medical induced stasis. First Aid looked up Blades with an annoyed glare. "Really Blades? Did you need to be that violent with Jazz? He clearly wasn't going to put up any resistance."

Blades rolled his optics and helped his brother move the unconscious mech on a gurney. "Bluestreak was taking too long, and Ratchet was annoying me. Can we just hurry up before the other prisoners get any more excited?" He activated the gurney and it lifted off the ground. First Aid gave another sigh as he pushed Jazz out, quickly getting him out.

"Deserter! Autobot scum! Traitor! I hope you get your spark ripped out!" The Decepticons that were in the cells started getting rowdy when they saw the mech that resulted their imprisonment. "Kill him! Kill him!"

Bluestreak tried to ignore the chanting, but it made him think what Jazz had to listen to every single day. When the Praxian was walking in front of Soundwave's cell, he saw the smug look on his face. They had placed the Host Carrier in a specialized cell that Blaster helped build to keep Soundwave from using his telepathic ability, but Bluestreak couldn't help but feel that he was looking into his processor. "What are you so happy about Soundwave?"

"You could have had a very loyal mech on your side, but someone broke his promise to my pet. He may be leaving this place, but he will never let me go. I've beaten Prowl for Jazz's entirety, and no amount of therapy will change that." Soundwave chuckled smugly as he leaned back in his chair.

The Praxian frowned slightly with his wings twitching. He followed after the Protectobots and tried to not let Soundwave get to him. When they got to the floor where the medical center was at, Bluestreak saw Prowl heading for his direction. Scrap, I can't let him see Jazz like this. Primus only knows how hard he'd glitch. The Praxian jogged over to his brother and spun him back in the direction he had come. "Prowl, what are you doing here? You never come to Newgate Prison."

"Who was that that First Aid and Blades were taking to Ratchet?" Prowl looked over his shoulder, but Bluestreak towed him to the worker's mess hall. "I came to finally see… came to see if I could make it to the elevator this time. And try to apology for what I did, or I should say didn't do all those years ago." He stopped resisting his brother's push and he sighed heavily as he remembered Jazz's cries out for him when he was captured by the team.

Bluestreak's wings twitched through Prowl's entire speech. He gave his servo a dismissive wave and chuckled nervously. "No one special, he was complaining about pain. Why don't we talk about your sudden need to apologize? You have nothing to apologize for Prowl, Jazz did this to himself."

Prowl shook his helm and ran a servo across the back of his neck. "No, I could have done something to help him. I promised him that I would never leave him alone. If I had been quicker with his sentence and smarter with my emotions, Jazz wouldn't be down there with all those criminals. That's what I have had to live with for twenty years Blue, I feel so guilty for not helping the mech that needed me the most."

"Bro, I am saying this because I love you, but maybe you should just move on. Smokey and I don't like seeing you so emotionally unstable." The younger brother put a servo on his shoulder with a frown. "I know what you two had was good and fun, but that is all in the past. Just let Jazz's last memories of you be good ones, okay?"

"What do you mean? Are they holding a trial for him? No, I can't just let him think I've completely forgotten him." Prowl said before he winced in pain as he felt a glitch come on. He held the side of his helm as he could feel his processor pounding violently. Bluestreak sighed as he sat Prowl down at a table, he laid his helm on the table and started rubbing his wings soothingly.

The steel blue Praxian spoke softly to avoid drawing further attention to them. "Look, you weren't supposed to know about this until the trial, but in a couple days Magnus will be interrogating Jazz. Tomorrow I'm going to give him a session. Come to them, but don't interrupt them okay? That way you see him before he receives his sentence." He silently cursed his nonexistent filter. "But I'm warning you now Prowl, Jazz has changed."

Prowl's battle computer settled slowly when he thought he could see Jazz again. He never thought he would have such a need for Jazz, but he saw him as his sparkmate. His creators had always told Prowl that he would know when he found someone to be with for the rest of his functioning, and for a long time he doubted it. Until Jazz. "Thank you. I'm sorry for being a glitching mess."

"It's okay Prowl, you're family. Come on, let's go for a drive, bet Smokey is done at the racetrack." Bluestreak decided to change the subject. We're making progress with Prowl, he didn't crash, and that glitch was very mild. Maybe… no, no bad Blue. Prowl sat up and smiled subtly at his brother.

Just like clockwork, Jazz started convulsing and tried to roll over, but he found he couldn't move. He started panicking when he couldn't move in either direction, he felt heat tickle his face, and heard muffled voices. The Polyhexian's intakes grew rapid and his spark was now pounding hard against his frame. There was a sharp prick to his arm, slowly he started calming down. "He's calming down Ratchet."

"Okay, slowly give him fifty ccs of med grade. Jazz, we shut your voice box off, nod if you understand me." Ratchet explained as he flashed a light in his optics. Jazz gave a weak half nod. "Optic reaction is the same, motor functions working properly. How you survived twenty years on empty tanks, is a miracle. First Aid inject the bags with more nanites. We need to get these wounds closed up."

Jazz pulled his left arm as much as he could, but he heard cuffs and he quickly gave up. He drew a glyph on the small space beside him. Training. Ratchet leaned towards the blind mech's neck and removed the collar before locking a smaller band around his left ankle. "Nanites are injected." First Aid said as he pushed the gel-like substance into the bag's catheter.

The Polyhexian started coughing and started dry heaving again. Another medical assistant turned Jazz's helm just in time for him to purge all the energon that was dripping into him. Ratchet groaned in frustration but looked at First Aid. "Add more iron and calcium sulfate. Jazz, we're going to be putting a feeding tube down your throat so I'm going to need you to take slow intakes."

Jazz pressed his lips tightly and shook his helm with sounds of protest. Ratchet snapped his digits near Jazz's horns, getting him to stop struggling and cooperate with them with great reluctance. The Polyhexian tried to not gag as he felt the tube slowly press path his lips. Tears were trailing down the corners of his optics and his felt his fear rise as he heard Ratchet drill out more instructions. He felt himself grow drowsy just moments before he felt Soundwave's presence through the bond.

Ratchet was looking down at Jazz with a sense of sympathy. He knew that Jazz didn't understand what was going on and having all these servos touching him wasn't helping with easing his nerves. The medic looked at all the mechs and femmes that were with him. "No one is to be alone with Jazz without First Aid or I, am I clear?"

"Yes Ratchet." They all nodded stiffly, knowing if they tried to rebel, they would get a wrench to the helm. Some stayed behind to clean up the mess while the other trainees left.

The old medic looked at his patient's vitals, watching the nanites start activating and repairing any damage needed, and the energon that the feeding tube was connected to was already nearly empty. First Aid already had another cube on standby as well as changing out the empty bags of energon. "I can't believe he survived that long without energon. Soundwave wouldn't have been that cruel to starve Jazz, would he?" The younger medic asked while filled out Jazz's medical report. "His spark levels are stabilizing, fuel levels slowly increasing, and fifty percent of all external injuries are repaired."

"No, Soundwave has done a lot of things to Jazz but in a weird… disturbing and twisted did care about Jazz. Though… it makes me wonder how he did stay online this long without fueling. Check his wrist for me, do you see any tearing on the fuel lines?" Ratchet asked as he looked at the wrist on his side. He found old and some recent breakings of several fuel lines, all done using denta. When he looked up at the Protectobot and saw him nod in confirmation. "You didn't do what I think you did, did you?"

First Aid was making notes of their findings before he saw that the CMO was getting ready to do a hardline. "Ratchet, you aren't doing what I think you are doing, are you?" Without getting an answer, the younger medic watched him do a hardline connection with the unconscious mech. "You are so getting a wrench to the helm when you're out of that mess of a processor."

Ratchet stood in Jazz's processor, he was surrounded by darkness except for a spotlight that was beaming down on the multicolored Polyhexian. Jazz was facing three mirrors; the one on the left was of him pre-war, the center was of him with his first lieutenant Autobot insignia, and the one on the right was empty. His reflections were reaching out to him with smiles on their face, but they were completely different.

"Pick one. Which one? Can't have both. Decepticon pet? Loyal Autobot? Which one Jazz? Which one!?" The real Jazz covered the sides of his helm as he dropped to his knees, shouting in distress as the reflections continued shouting and the mirrors were shaking. Jazz was shaking his helm, "shut up. Shut up. I can't pick, I don't want to pick."

"Ya gotta pick or we can never have Prowler back. Ya want Prowler, back right?" The Autobot Jazz asked as he put his servos against the glass. Ratchet was watching Jazz talk to himself, or rather the versions of himself.

Jazz sat up with his back hunched and his servos lowering to his sides. "I-I… I want Prowl, but he doesn't want me. He found out about our… my past, and he was disgusted with me. I didn't switch sides soon enough, didn't tell Optimus about everything, and now look at me. Blind, recycling the energon that is in my fuel lines, friendless, no hope. Why should I choose you? You are just a role I played."

"And look where that got Master. He is in the same situation as you. All you had to do was kill the Prime, and you would have had it all! You would have Master, a home, that sparkling, and Prowl. But no, you had to ruin it by feeling emotions you never should have let yourself feel. You ruined your haven by wanting to seek redemption from those Iaconians! Master told you that they turned their backs on you and look where that has landed you. In prison, alone." The other Jazz crossed his arms with a frown.

"But Optimus is my friend, I couldn't just kill him! They didn't know I existed until the war. Sire was looking for me, he didn't give up on me." Jazz leaned forward again with his arms hugging himself.

"Dat's cause ya realized how wrong Soundwave was. Ya opened yer optics tah reality, Soundwave stole everythin' from us. He deserves his Hell, ya can redeem yerself still. Give up dah slaggin' collar, give up dah monster dat made ya so pathetic, and let our real friends help." Jazz looked down in his lap and saw a ball of light. He broke down in tears, but he held onto the ball. "Let go Jazz." Ratchet continued to watch his inner turmoil and was wanting to help the Autobot Jazz with convincing Jazz.

"I-I can't! He's all I have left. They abandoned me, left me in the dark for twenty years! He left me alone to suffer, left me while they ripped my vision away from me. My friends turned their backs on me. I wanted their help, but I didn't know how to because I was scared." He hugged the ball to his spark. "Soundwave is a monster, but he wouldn't leave me alone to suffer."

Ratchet was pulled out of Jazz's processor by a worried First Aid. He was sat on a stool before he noticed a peeved Ironhide standing in front of him. The red mech had his arms crossed and his left ped tapping on the floor. "What is wrong with you!? You know how dangerous it is to hardline with unconscious mechs!" He waved an arm in the air.

"First Aid make sure Jazz's tanks are completely full. He's been recycling from his fuel lines." Ratchet rubbed his temples as a processor ache was growing. "And… upgrade the anti-virus software to level two. Ironhide, I know the dangers, but I needed to take it. Jazz is really sick and he's hurting."

Ironhide scoffed and pointed at Jazz's stilled frame. "That mech killed nearly every Prime, pretended to want to help take down Megatron, and wormed his way up to kill Optimus! He's sick in the helm and should have his spark extinguished." The red mech hated, no despised, the plan Ratchet had wanted to do for Jazz. He wanted to see the traitor deactivate for what he did. "Not every mech can be saved Ratch'."

Ratchet stood up and grabbed Jazz's servo as he looked at his longtime friend. "Ironhide, if you knew the things I knew, saw the things I saw from just the moment of hardline, you would want to save him too. Bluestreak and I were making a major breakthrough, he wanted to make up for all the wrongs he did, and we treated him like a wild animal. If the Council can give someone like Drift, who was a Decepticon, a second chance why not Jazz?" I'm sorry that you thought I abandoned you Jazz.

Ironhide couldn't think of a comeback or a reason. He felt betrayed by Jazz, but he remembered the screams Jazz gave as he begged. "If he so much as flicks you or Optimus, I'm killing him." He turned on his heel and left the med bay with curses flying out of his mouth. I hope you know what you're doing Ratchet.

Here it is! The first chapter of the alternate ending!